Green Team

Morgantown Green Team: Minutes of the December 7, 2015 Meeting Attending: Joey James (Chair), Holly Purpura (Friends of Decker’s Creek), Pam Cubberly (Green Nights and Green Morgantown), Jing Zhang (Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization or MMMPO), and Jenny Selin (City Council). I. Old Business None. II. New Business A. Sustainable Morgantown Initiative (SMI). Joey James updated the group on the multiple initiatives in Phase III of the initiative: Marketing campaign. Joey announced that the Sustainable Morgantown message was now appearing “live” on an electronic bulletin board visible on the left of Route 119 driving north across Greenbag Road. That said, the type may be a bit small for drivers who may only be able to read the title; this hopefully will be improved. SMI is also working with the city communications director (Chelsi Baker) on a city webpage on SMI efforts to encourage homeowners, businesses, and landlords to take advantage of some of the energy- saving opportunities SMI has developed with Mosaic Power, LTI, etc. Jenny suggested that SMI publicize photos that show “before and after” shots on a variety of green topics, e.g., solar panels, bike infrastructure, recycling, etc. to show progress made to date. Solar Co-op. WV SUN had reported that it was working on installation of solar panels on the last of several members’ homes in Morgantown. Our first solar co-op is now the largest in the state of West Virginia. Joey was waiting on final figures: numbers of panels and number of kilowatts installed. Once the last ones are installed, WV SUN generally holds a celebration for those who have partici- pated in the co-op. Joey hoped that such an event could also help promote other aspects of Phase III of the Sustainable Morgantown Initiative and perhaps a second co-op. [Note: Since the meeting, Con- gress voted to extend the solar tax credit for another five years, encouraging more homeowners to participate in solar co-ops, so a second co-op may be possible in Morgantown next year if there is enough interest.] Joey also mentioned the idea of a solar tour in 2016 to showcase the results of the first solar co-op in Morgantown. Jenny suggested he contact BOPARC on using one of their vans for such a tour as it would be cheaper. Pam asked what WV SUN thought about a second co-op in Morgantown next year, as there might be folks on their list who could not get the money together this past year but could in 2016. Joey said the issue may simply be that WV SUN has limited funds to support co-ops and is probably interested in creating co-ops in other parts of the state. That said, the team and others who have participated in our co-op probably have enough expertise to run introductory meetings on a second co-op, so it might be worth the team or others pursuing a second co-op with minimal support from WV SUN.  Energy assessments. LTI is currently doing energy audits at some of the homes that had volunteered to do SMI’s Phase II survey. B. Proposed FODC–Green Team Winter-Spring Series of Outreach Meetings. Holly Purpura and Pam Cubberly described a series of outreach meetings proposed by FODC to be co-sponsored by the Green Team that would in essence take the place of the team’s Green Nights at the Library in 2016. FODC had received some funds to support this outreach effort and Holly had begun discussions with Pam on her development of the fall series of meeting on air, water, and waste, which were similar to what FODC hopes to develop. They agreed that the two groups should coordinate, building on mo- mentum and publicity of the Green Team’s fall series. Holly’s idea was to have 3–4 outreach meetings that bring stakeholders together on key topics. At the time, these included (1) energy use, (2) public transportation, (3) bicycles and bicycle safety, and (4) storm-water runoff. Some at the meeting thought that several of these topics could be combined, e.g., public transportation, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic, in one meeting. Dates of the series were not yet fixed. [Note: Later discussion resulted in the idea of having two such meetings in the winter and two in the spring and further discussion among Holly, Pam, and Joey has produced a wider vision of the effort, in which the series will be a key part. All this will be discussed at the January 4th meeting.) It was agreed that Holly should take the lead on this series—with support from Pam—in terms of lo- cations, speakers, etc. Team members provided a number of suggestions of people and places to con- tact. Jing Zhang noted that he had received certification as a LEED inspector and recently conducted a course on sustainability especially sustainable neighborhoods and bicycle infrastructure. He had a good deal of data to support his efforts and was interested in opportunities to present on these topics in other venues. He said he would be happy to contribute to one or more of the series’ meetings. C. Building Green Team membership. Joey James noted his intention of finding ways to build the team’s membership. Historically, the team had been created to advise the city manager on environ- mental matters and represented a range of skill sets. The team had undergone considerable turnover in membership and leadership in recent years. When asked if the city manager had given any feedback on how well the team was advising him, Joey said he believed the city manager was receiving advice informally from team members as well as through team “alerts” and letters to council. When asked whether the team had been assisting the city manager on reducing city energy costs, Joey noted the ongoing performance contract that the team helped the city on, including reducing energy cost of its vehicles. Action: Jenny suggested that the team, specifically Joey, present a year-end report on the team’s ef- forts, results, and accomplishments at a council meeting in January—perhaps in the form of an open letter. This could include its recycling project, the solar co-op and other parts of the Sustainable Mor- gantown Initiative (SMI), and the ongoing Green Nights at the Library, especially the fall series on air, water, and waste. This would provide Joey the opportunity to ask council for ideas and sugges- tions on new team members with specific technical, publicity, and outreach skill sets. In addition, specific mention of SMI’s Phase III opportunities for energy audits, multi-residence energy efficien-  cy, and possibly a green business certification program would be promoted to the city at large, as the council meetings are televised. D. Urban Agriculture Ordinance. Jenny Selin noted that revisions to the proposed ordinance, which had been sent by the City Council back to the city manager’s office for further work, were not yet ready. She will keep us informed of any progress. E. City liaison replacement. Pam Cubberly noted that it was important to take care of some administra- tive matters soon: finding a city liaison (to replace Trevor Lloyd who had left city employment last year), not only to serve as the team’s link with the city manager’s office and other city offices, but al- so to mentor the recycling intern. It was also important to begin the process of finding a replacement recycling intern so that existing intern Amanda Stoner could work with the new intern to bring him or her up to speed before Amanda left for Africa next spring-summer. Action: Jenny Selin agreed to look into the question of a new city liaison. She believed that it is im- portant that the liaison have a technical background. F. Recycling. Jenny also noted that there is a new Republic Services liaison with the City of Morgan- town who she hoped would help improve communications between the company and the city. G. Parking tags for Green Team members. Jenny was surprised to hear that regular Green Team members did not have parking tags for use when attending Green Team and other related meetings. She said she would look into getting them to one of the team members. [She later told Pam Cubberly she could pick up the tags just before the January 4th Green Team meeting.] Adjournment. The meeting adjourned at about 7:00pm. Minutes submitted by Pam Cubberly, De- cember 29, 2015. Next meeting: January 4, 5:30pm to 7:00pm, in City Council Chambers at 389 Spruce Street.